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vest

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English has a noun vest, a garment, taken from French in the 17th century, and a verb vest, to put in possession, taken from Old French in the 15th; both go back to Latin vestis, clothing.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

vest1 garment

Etymology

It is borrowed from French veste (“a vest, jacket”),[1][5][6][7] from Italian veste (“robe, gown”), also vesta,[1][5][8] from Latin vestis (“clothing, garment”).[1][5][6][9] The Latin noun is related to ἐσθής (esthḗs, “clothing”) and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe”),[1][5][9][6] the root that also gave wear.[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loose outer garment, a robe or gown, of the kind worn by men in ancient times or in Eastern countries: 1613, in Sir Anthony Sherley's account of his travels in Persia.[1][2][8]

Semantic evolution

The modern garment began at the English court: on 8 October 1666 Samuel Pepys wrote that King Charles II had announced a new fashion of a vest, "to teach the nobility thrift".[1][5][3][8] This was a long sleeveless garment worn under the coat, which soon became the shorter waistcoat.[1][10] The United States kept vest for the waistcoat, while British English, from 1851, used the word for an undergarment worn next to the skin.[1][3] Women's outer garments were called vests from about 1700,[1][5] and in American English a short sleeveless jacket for a woman from 1909.[1] In American slang a vest is a bulletproof vest (1933).[11] The phrase vest-pocket, for something small of its kind, dates from 1823.[5]

Timeline

  • 1613 – a loose outer robe or gown.[1][2]
  • 1655 – a garment in figurative use.[1]
  • c. 1660 – an ecclesiastical vestment (rare).[1]
  • 1666 – a sleeveless garment worn under the coat; a waistcoat.[1][8]
  • 1700 – a robe worn by women.[1]
  • 1823 – vest-pocket, small.[5]
  • 1851 – an undergarment for the upper body.[1]
  • 1909 – (US) a short sleeveless jacket for women.[1]
  • 1933 – (US slang) a bulletproof vest.[11]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (British) A sleeveless undergarment worn on the upper body: He wore a thermal vest under his shirt.
  2. (US, Canada and Australia) A sleeveless garment worn under a suit jacket; a waistcoat.
  3. A sleeveless garment worn for a particular purpose, such as a bulletproof or life vest.
  4. (archaic) A loose outer robe or gown.

Word family

  • undervest
  • vestee
  • vestless
  • bulletproof vest
  • vest-pocket

vest2 to confer

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vesten,[2][5] borrowed from Old French vestir (“to clothe; to invest”), also vester,[1][5][2][9] from Medieval Latin vestio (“to put into possession, invest”), in classical Latin vestiō (“to clothe, dress”), from vestis (“clothing”).[1][5][8][10] The Shorter Oxford takes the English verb from the past participle vestu (“clothed”).[10][12] Ayto explains that the Latin verb, at first "to clothe", came to mean putting someone into an office by dressing them in its robes.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put an estate, right or title into someone's possession: about 1425, in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland.[1][8]

Semantic evolution

The legal use, as in authority vested in the trustees, came first,[8][1] and the verb is still used mostly of rights, property and power;[13][1] in other senses it has largely been replaced by invest, according to Weekley.[13] From 1464 a person could be vested in a possession,[1][8] and after 1674 with a quality such as power or authority.[1][8] The sense "to dress in a garment", especially in church vestments, is recorded from 1513, in Gavin Douglas's Aeneid,[1][8] and figurative clothing from 1679.[1] The adjective vested, settled in someone's possession, dates from 1766,[8] and vested interest from 1818.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1425 – to put property or rights into someone's possession.[1][8]
  • 1464 – to establish a person in possession.[1][8]
  • 1513 – to dress, especially in church vestments.[1][8]
  • 1592 – intransitive, to pass into someone's possession.[1]
  • 1659 – with power or authority as object.[1]
  • 1674 – to invest a person with a quality.[1][8]
  • 1818 – vested interest.[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To give property, a right or authority to a person or body: Power to approve the budget is vested in the council.
  2. To give someone a right or power: The board was vested with authority to appoint the director.
  3. Of a right or property, to pass into someone's possession; to become legally fixed.
  4. To dress, especially in church vestments.

Word family

  • vested
  • vested interest
  • vesting

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray